Infill Thinking Lifting the O&G knowledge curve

In this asset-intensive business, talent shifts are often ignored. But we believe people matter. We also believe that recruiting datapoints often carry implications for oilfield trends, value creation, and competitive dynamics. Here are two notable moves that caught our attention recently… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to …

As the vote on the vacant Texas Trustee seat draws closer (May 22), we continue to publish this “scorecard” documenting the punches thrown by each side. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must …

We provide updated thoughts on the market conditions for frac sand in Texas. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If you are new to Infill Thinking, or your membership …

This June 21st in Downtown Houston, US oil industry leaders will gather to discuss oilfield water’s evolving business model, market structure, and finance trends. Oilfield Water: Identifying & Financing The Right Solution is the first-ever conference devoted entirely to the business side of oilfield water. This segment now poses structural …

Here’s a look at what they said then and now, showing how their thinking has become more transparent. Other operators will definitely take notice if Pioneer’s water tone starts to shift on divestiture, since the company has long been at the forefront of water management in the tight oil E&P …

What’s really going on with Schlumberger’s trucking unit? We discuss the story behind the story here… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If you are new to Infill Thinking, …

Market intel on the local frac sand supply stack. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If you are new to Infill Thinking, or your membership has expired, please email …

Big changes at the biggest sand company in the US. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If you are new to Infill Thinking, or your membership has expired, please …

As our newsletter this past Tuesday predicted, Chevron walked…. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If you are new to Infill Thinking, or your membership has expired, please email …

Market intel on the Brady frac sand supply stack. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If you are new to Infill Thinking, or your membership has expired, please email …

Just days after a customer popped the cork on news that a big frac outfit may be rolling out an electric frac fleet, another pressure pumper has jumped on the e-frac bandwagon. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and …

Breaking news involving the acquisition of an innovative last mile boutique and a software platform that we’ve been covering for quite some time here at Infill Thinking… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you …

  There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If you are new to Infill Thinking, or your membership has expired, please email us to discuss our current subscription options at [email protected]. (Current …

In the pithy bullet points below, here’s what all frac supply chain folks should know from Solaris’s remarks on their earnings call last week. Their words. Their views. Not ours. But just the stuff we think matters for the broader completions marketplace. There’s a lot more to this story… Login …

The proxy contest for the vacant Trustee seat on Texas Pacific’s board has only heated up since we first wrote about it here several weeks ago. Over the past week, jabs have been flying left and right, fast and furious. So rather than writing up each swing, we figured a …

Here’s the latest on a plant worker strike that is impacting NWS supply. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If you are new to Infill Thinking, or your membership …

The customer of a large frac outfit wasn’t the only one talking excitedly about electric fracs last week. Here’s what the builders said… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. …

On their earnings call on May 2, 2019, an E&P management team dropped this little lightning bolt of news: There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If you are new …

The day after PDC Energy sold their water infrastructure assets to WaterBridge – crossing a deal  off our watchlist – another transaction closed that fits with a deal theme we are monitoring – a theme likely to continue with more small M&A deals like this one in the days ahead… …

In the pithy bullet points below, here’s what all frac supply chain folks should know from US Silica’s remarks on their earnings call this week. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be …

Earnings season can be pretty dry. As we approach peak 1Q19 reporting season in the oilfield, a stack of earnings releases, transcripts, and recaps are piling up on desks from New York to Midland (ours included, somewhere in between). So we’ll take the humor and lighter moments where we can …

About one month ago, we tipped readers off about five potential upcoming deals in the oilfield water M&A pipeline. Today, one of the deals on our watch-list came to fruition. We knew the seller before… now we know the buyer. And it is one of the most aggressive consolidators in …

This is the fifth installment in our Silica Valley Series which shines the spotlight on an increasingly critical part of the frac value chain: new software solutions in the last mile. A crop of new entrants are improving the frac sand industry’s “mind-muscle connection” on the highways from origin to …

In our weekly rig count update this week, a highlights from the latest round of remarks made by the leading land rig contractors. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. …

The battle for control of a critical swath of Permian land and water assets continues to heat up as the incumbents retaliate against recent activist investor information releases… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, …

If there’s one thing we can say with certainty about the 2019 US shale business it’s that oilfield water management is trending. You’ve probably noticed an uptick in water research here at Infill Thinking (example 1, 2, and 3). And we aren’t alone… check out newly launched oilfieldwater.com. So when …

Price is a powerful lever. And falling sand prices have extended payback periods for new greenfield frac sand plants. What does this mean for interest in building new plants? In this post, we take a data-driven look at the current status of a once-in-a-lifetime silica mining rush. There’s a lot …

An activist investor continues to trade punches with a big Delaware Basin land bank. The proxy battle has big oilfield water and land management implications. Here is analysis on the latest developments in this proxy battle over a vacant trustee seat as the vote looms large… There’s a lot more …

Ultra-fine proppant has been in and out of the news for the past several years without a real inflection in traction in completion design. Will that fact pattern change in the future? We discuss the microproppant outlook and a new datapoint in the story here. There’s a lot more to …

We take a look at some notable comings and goings. The frac talent pool continues to play musical chairs. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If you are new …

What can Eagle Ford frac sand customers and suppliers expect for the rest of 2019 on the local sand greenfield front? We’ve rounded up data on the next round of plant startups. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and …

When Chevron bid for Anadarko two weeks ago, the first line of Infill Thinking’s newsletter that day underscored the importance of Oxy’s failed bid. “The most interesting headline coming out of today’s Mega-Scale M&A news might actually be Oxy’s failed bid for Anadarko.” – Infill Thinking Headline From 4/12/19 Come …

On Monday, Halliburton was the second oilfield service company to host a conference call so far during the early days of 1Q19 earnings season. Here’s what you need to know from the call if you work in the US completions supply chain. There’s a lot more to this story… Login …

Today’s news was widely expected. It’s what comes next that’s less clear. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If you are new to Infill Thinking, or your membership has …

With a shareholder meeting to pick the next TPL Trustee one month away, the activist investor’s pick for the vacant seat has launched a video campaign in which he questions the Trust’s land and water strategy. The vote for this seat has big implications for the Permian land and water …

In this update we shine a flashlight beam on one of the Permian Basin’s ugliest metrics relative to the rest of US shale. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. …

In a five-minute read, here’s what completions supply chain pros need to know about Schlumberger’s market commentary Thursday morning… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If you are new …

Here’s what completions supply chain folks need to know about Union Pacific’s market commentary Thursday morning… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If you are new to Infill Thinking, …

It’s only Tuesday, but two major frac sand industry gatherings have already happened in Texas this week. Much of the buzz we picked up from these events (one of which our team attended) seemed to be in line with recent Infill Thinking reporting and presentations at other recent frac sand …

Status quo in frac sand? Yep. For the first time in two years, disruption is in the review mirror not smack dab ahead of us. See how and what’s next in this thematic piece… There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this …

Our regular weekly rig count update this week shines the spotlight on the SCOOP/STACK rig count. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If you are new to Infill Thinking, …

The Coloradan E&P industry is braced for the earth to move beneath their feet, and tolerance for QHSE risk is about zero among the operators navigating this challenging regulatory landscape. When we talk with our O&G contacts in the Rockies, regulation invariably comes up. So here’s an update on where …

On Monday April 15, 2019, most Infill Thinking readers are either: There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If you are new to Infill Thinking, or your membership has expired, …

Infill Thinking was honored to participate and attend the SPE’s Permian Symposium in Houston yesterday. Special thanks to all the events organizers and presenters – it was a great experience and we learned a ton. To all the Infill Thinking members we ran into, it was great seeing you in …

Much is being written about Chevron bidding $33bn to take over Anadarko this morning, and rightly so. Instead of yet another transaction rehash, here are four quick thoughts on our mind after waking up to the news this morning: … There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see …

The Infill Thinking team will be attending and speaking at the Permian Basin Symposium hosted by the SPE Gulf Coast Section this Thursday, April 11 in Houston. If you’ll be there, please say hi… we’d welcome the chance to shake your hand and chat oilfield trends. Infill Thinking founder Joseph …

Infill Thinking has learned some new details in the Permian Basin saga involving the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard (DSL). These details involve a key leadership change and the 2019 conservation plan. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our …

One of the key takeaways from our Permian Basin recon trip a couple months ago was that intra-basin railing of local sand was about to become reality. In this boots-on-the-ground piece in March, we wrote that first shipments could happen by the end of 1Q19. The timing of that prediction …

We learned that an operator had some very nice things to say about local sand to their investors in New York on Tuesday morning… Check out why this is notable here. There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive …

  There’s a lot more to this story… Login to see the full update…  To read this update and receive our research newsletters, you must be a member. If you are new to Infill Thinking, or your membership has expired, please email us to discuss our current subscription options at [email protected]. (Current …